Prologue of the Rubik’s Cube Beginners Tutorial

If you have been looking for an easy way to solve Rubik’s Cube, you are now in the right place! I enjoy speedcubing (solving the cube very fast), so I thought it would be nice to make a website about it. However, I noticed there are already tons of excellent speedcubing websites, but not so many good websites are suitable for beginners. That’s why I tried to make a good beginners tutorial, allowing people who don’t have any cubing-experience to learn a simple solution for solving Rubik’s Cube. I also provide a 'simple solution' in the tutorials section, that requires less reading.

Some people are amazed when I show them I can solve Rubik’s Cube, but I think anyone with a brain can learn how to do it. It’s really much easier than it looks to someone who doesn’t know anything about the cube. All it takes is about 5 move sequences. A lot of these sequences will be easy to understand.

Because the method presented below is a beginners method, it’s not a very efficient method. I estimate that this method will allow beginners to solve the cube in about three minutes. More experienced cubers will probably average under one minute with this method.

Just one other thing… While I was writing this tutorial, I had to make a decision: I could have decided to just give you 5 algorithms that you can apply without understanding them. In that case, I wouldn’t really add anything new, since there are plenty of websites where you can find those algorithms. Learning this solution requires some reading, but afterwards, you will understand much more about the moves, and about solving the cube in general. Another advantage is, that if you memorize moves that you understand, then it’s harder to forget them. If you are looking for a tutorial that requires less reading, you should first try: Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube.

Introduction to Rubik's Cube

The mechanism of Rubik's Cube


There are some things I think you should know about the cube before you start solving it. First of all, the cube is build up with 3 types of pieces, called centres, corners and edges.

1. The centers of the cube
2. The colour scheme of the cube


The centres are the pieces with only one sticker. The centre-pieces will always be in the same position relative to each other, so they will determine how the cube will look like when it is solved. When I hold my cube with the yellow face on top, and the blue face on the front, I know the bottom face is white, the back is green (etc.). If you want to be able to recognize where the pieces need to quickly, you should know the colour scheme of your cube by heart. Applet 2 shows the colour-scheme of my cube. All applets in this tutorial will use this colour scheme. If your cube is different some mental juggling will be necessary.

3. The edge pieces

4. The corner pieces


The edge pieces and corner pieces, are the pieces that have two and three stickers on them respectively. The most important thing you should know, is that all pieces have a unique combination of coloured stickers on them. This means that when the cube is solved, every individual piece has it’s own unique position.

Two types of problems

There are different ways to classify problems, but one way to categorize problems is to split them in two groups: Position problems and orientation problems.

For an example of a position problem, look at the applet below:

5. An example of a position problem


Some beginners who try to solve the cube, try to solve one side. Off course, if you have no cube experience at all, it’s very good if you accomplish something like the situation in the above picture. However, if you are trying to solve the whole cube, making one side like this is really useless. This is because the 8 pieces around the white centre-piece are correctly oriented (with respect to the white centre piece), but most of them are in the wrong position. Thus, when you want to solve one face, your cube should look like this when you’re done:

6. The solved first layer


The applets below show typical orientation problems:

6. Example of an orientation problem
7. Example of an orientation problem


In these situations, all pieces are in the correct position, but some of them are not lined up correctly. Notice that a corner piece can be oriented in three different ways: Correct, twisted clockwise or twisted anti-clockwise. An edge piece can be oriented in two ways: Good or bad.

Notation

To be able to communicate about moves for solving Rubik’s Cube, a system for notation has been developed. There are six faces: Upper (U), Down (D), Left (L), Right (R), Front (F) and Back (B). Each of these faces can be turned 90-degrees clockwise, 90-degrees anti-clockwise or 180-degrees (in any direction). A 90-degree turn clockwise of the U face is denoted as U. A 90-degree turn anti-clockwise of the U face is denoted as U’. A 180-degree turn of the U face is denoted as U2. The same notation is used for all six faces. Be careful with this: a clockwise turn means look at a face, then turn it clockwise. In other words, a clockwise turn of the Back (B) face, will look like a turn counter clockwise from the perspective of the person who is holding the cube. The applets bellow illustrate this.

8. The F move

9. The F' move

10. The B move
11. The B' move
12. The U2 move


This is the basic system that is used for the notation of moves. Some cubers also use other symbols to denote more complex moves (click here for an example), but for now, the system explained here will be sufficient. I will also use this notation system to refer to the position of one specific cubie. For example, the UL edge piece is the edge piece that has one sticker in the U face, and one sticker in the L face. Or: The BRD corner is the corner that has one sticker on the B face, one on the R face, and one on D.